Amendments
XI - XXVII to The Constitution of The United States
Amendment XI
(Ratified in 1795.)
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed
to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted
against one of the United States by Citizens of another State,
or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
Amendment XII
(Ratified in 1804.)
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by
ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least,
shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves;
they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-
President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons
voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-
President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the
government of the United States, directed to the President of
the Senate;
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the
votes shall then be counted;
The person having the greatest number of votes for President,
shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the
whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such
majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not
exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the
House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot,
the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be
taken by states, the representation from each state having one
vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or
members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the
states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right
of choice shall devolve upon then, before the fourth day of
March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional
disability of the President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as
Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a
majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no
person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the
list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for
the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of
Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary
to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the
office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President
of the United States.
Amendment XIII
(Ratified in 1865.)
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIV
(Ratified in 1868.)
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respective numbers, counting
the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not
taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice
of electors for President and Vice President of the United
States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial
officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof,
is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being
twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or
in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be
reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years
of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative
in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold
any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under
any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of
Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member
of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer
of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the
same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But
Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such
disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment
of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against
the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of
any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be
held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Amendment XV
(Ratified in 1870.)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XVI
(Ratified in 1913.)
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on
incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
among the several States, and without regard to any census or
enumeration.
Amendment
XVII
(Ratified in 1913.)
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two
Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof for six
years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors
of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the
Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs
of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the
legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to
make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies
by election as the legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the
election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid
as part of the Constitution.
Amendment XVIII
(Ratified in 1919.)
(Repealed in 1933 by Amendment XXI)
Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this
article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating
liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation
thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the
jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have
concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it
shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
the legislatures of the several States as provided in the
Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission
hereof to the States by the Congress.
Amendment XIX
(Ratified in 1920.)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment
XX
(Ratified in 1933.)
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President
shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of
Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January,
of the years in which such terms would have ended if this
article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors
shall then begin.
Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in
every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day
of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the
term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the
Vice President elect shall become President. If a President
shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the
beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have
failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as
President until a President shall have qualified; and the
Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a
President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified,
declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in
which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall
act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have
qualified.
Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case
of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of
Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of
choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the
death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a
Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved
upon them.
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th
day of October following the ratification of this article.
Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it
shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within
seven years from the date of its submission.
Amendment XXI
(Ratified in 1933.)
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the
Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any
State, Territory, or possession of the United States for
delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of
the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it
shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
conventions in the several States, as provided in the
Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission
hereof to the States by the Congress.
Amendment XXII
(Ratified in 1951.)
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of
the President more than twice, and no person who has held the
office of President, or acted as President, for more than two
years of a term to which some other person was elected President
shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the
office of President when this Article was proposed by the
Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding
the office of President, or acting as President, during the term
within which this Article becomes operative from holding the
office of President or acting as President during the remainder
of such term.
Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it
shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within
seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the
Congress.
Amendment XXIII
(Ratified in 1961.)
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of
Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as
the Congress may direct:
The United States Constitution, Amendment 23, Section 1
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to
the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to
which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in
no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in
addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be
considered, for the purposes of the election of President and
Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they
shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided
by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXIV
(Ratified in 1964.)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to
vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice
President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for
Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure
to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXV
(Ratified in 1967.)
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from
office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall
become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of
the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice
President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority
vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to
discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he
transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such
powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as
Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice president and a majority of
either the principal officers of the executive departments or of
such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives their written declaration that the President
is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the
Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of
the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro
tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives his written declaration that no inability
exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office
unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal
officers of the executive department or of such other body as
Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives their written declaration that the President
is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within
forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the
Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter
written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within
twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble,
determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President
is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the
Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting
President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and
duties of his office.
Amendment XXVI
(Ratified in 1971.)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States,
who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXVII
No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators
and Representatives shall take effect until an election of
Representatives shall have intervened.
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